Indigo Girls will perform at an opening-night celebration for the Sundance Film Festival on Jan. 19 in Park City, Utah, Variety reported. The Grammy-winning lesbian folk-rock duo are debuting their new documentary, It's Only Life After All, during the festival. The celebration, "Opening Night: A Taste of Sundance presented by IMDbPro," will feature special honorees such as Call Me By Your Name director Luca Guadagnino (Sundance Institute International Icon Award), Black Panther director Ryan Coogler (Sundance Institute | Variety Visionary Award), We Need to Talk About Cosby director W. Kamau Bell (Vanguard Award for nonfiction) and Nanny director Nikyatu Jusu (Vanguard Award for fiction).
Queerty listed 16 LGBTQ+ movies that might be worth viewers' timeand that the site's writer is looking forward to seeing. Among some of the choices were Barbie, starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling; the Gael Garcia Bernal vehicle Cassandro, about a gay wrestler; Rustin, which stars gay actor Colman Domingo as the late gay civil-rights icon Bayard Rustin; Dope Queens, about three friends (Alexandra Grey, Pierson Fode and Trace Lysette) through one wild night in San Francisco's historic Tenderloin district; trans filmmaker Jane Schoenbrun's I Saw the TV Glow, which stars queer actor Justice Smith; Nyad, with Annette Being playing lesbian athlete Diana Nyadand Jodie Foster as her best friend; and Love Lies Bleeding, which co-stars Kristen Stewart and is set in the world of women's competitive bodybuilding.
GALECA: The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics announced its 14th Dorian Film Awards nominations, per a press release. The mind-bending comedy Everything Everywhere All at Once, starring Michelle Yeoh, leads with nine nominations. Tar, the dizzyingly heady drama with Cate Blanchett as an orchestra conductor experiencing her own issues with reality, follows with seven. The cutting end-of-a-bromance tale The Banshees of Inisherin notched five nods, as did the father-daughter drama Aftersun, including two for writer-director Charlotte Wells. Winners will be named Feb. 23.
In a new cover story for Variety, actor Jeremy Pope (Hollywood; The Inspection) opened up about homophobia he faced in the film industry, Out noted. In the interview Pope revealed that before he got his role in The Inspection, he lost a huge role because he's gay. He added that in show business, he's got to make sure he's being honest and open when taking roles.
Out fashion designer Tom Ford bought an eco-modernist $51-million Palm Beach, Florida, mansion near the end of last year, according to an Architectural Digest item that cited Mansion Global. The sale came shortly after it was reported that Estee Lauder Companies would acquire the mogul's self-named brand in a $2.8 billion deal. According to Queerty, the property (which features a main residence with more than 10,000 square feet of living space, rectangular pool, and a two-bedroom guest house) also happens to be located about a mile up the road from former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estateand Ford and Trump have had a contentious relationship over the years.
Star Trek's George Takei and Aladdin's Telly Leung are making their London stage debuts in the UK premiere of the 2015 Broadway musical Allegiancebased on events in Takei's family during World War II, Playbill noted. The intimate production, conceived specifically for the off-West End space the Charing Cross Theatre, is directed and choreographed by Tara Overfield Wilkinson. Now titled George Takei's Allegiance, the production will officially open Jan. 17 and continue through April 8.
It turns out a gay kiss was cut from Marvel Studios' Black Panther sequel, Wakanda Forever, according to Out. One notable change comes between the characters Ayo (Florence Kasumba) and Aneka (Michaela Coel), who shared little more than a peck on the forehead with only a hint they were romantically involved in the film; in the original, there was more kissing involved. The alteration was noticed thanks to the original script being made available through the r/MarvelStudiosSpoilers thread on Reddit and user u/IronMan_MarkLXXXV. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is set to hit the Disney+ streaming platform on Feb. 1.
Two LGBTQ+ actorsNicole Maines (TV's Supergirl) and Francois Arnaud (TV's The Borgias)have joined the cast for the upcoming second season of the Showtime thriller Yellowjackets in new recurring roles, according to Out. Mainesa GLAAD Media Award nominee for her portrayal of trans superhero Dreamer on Supergirlis set to play Lisa, an associate of adult Lottie (Simone Kessell) who is trying to recover from past trauma. Arnaud, who is bisexual in real life, will appear in four episodes playing a character named Paul who is "a New York writer and secret boyfriend of Coach Scott who reminds Coach Scott of what might have been." Season two of Yellowjackets is set to premiere on Showtime on Friday, March 24; the show has also been renewed for a third season.
Non-binary actor Ezra Miller (The Flash) entered a guilty plea to a charge of trespassing after being accused of stealing three bottles of liquor from the pantry of Stamford, Vermont, neighbor Isaac Winokur on May 1, 2022, Deadline reported. The plea came after they pled not guilty to felony burglary charges in October 2022. In addition to paying $500, Miller will also need to serve one year on administrative probation, Deadline noted.
Outfest shared that the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is awarding the organization $20,000 to support the Outfest Fusion QTBIPOC Film Festival in its 20th-anniversary year, per a media release. These funds will go toward supporting this year's festival, including free workshops for emerging LGBTQIA+ creators of color, as well as new year-round Outfest Fusion programming. The 2023 Outfest Fusion Film Festival will take place in-person and virtually March 2-April 2.
The Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards will stream live on Netflix globally beginning in 2024 thanks to a new multi-year partnership between Netflix and the SAG Awards, a press release announced. This year's 29th Annual SAG awards is scheduled to be broadcast online on Sunday, Feb. 26, at 7 p.m. CT, celebrating the outstanding motion picture and television performances of 2022. With this new deal in place, Netflix has agreed to stream the show on Netflix's YouTube channel, YouTube.com/Netflix, and will tap into its social-media channels to promote the event.
Netflix has won the rights to a series adaptation of Adam Silvera's gay best-selling YA novel They Both Die at the Endand Grammy-winning musician Bad Bunny is set to co-executive-produce it, Out noted. They Both Die at the End takes place in a world where a corporation called Death-Cast is able to accurately predict the deaths of individuals, and calls them to let them know when they have around 24 hours left to live. On Sept. 5, Death-Cast calls two boys, Mateo Torrez and Rufus Emeterio, and the two boys must decide how to spend their last days on earth.
Speaking of Bad Bunny, he, Blackpink and LGBTQ+ artist Frank Ocean will headline the 2023 Coachella festival, Variety reported. The lineup reflects the international direction in which the festival has leaned in recent years: Bunny is Puerto Rican and one of the biggest artists in the world; Blackpink are a South Korean K-pop group; and other top-billed artists include Icelandic legend Bjork, Spain's Rosalia, Nigeria's Burna Boy and British-Indian singer Jai Paul. A few of the other schedule acts include Rae Sremmurd, gay artist Kaytranada, Calvin Harris, Chemical Brothers, Charli XCX and Snail Mail. The 22nd installment of the festival takes place at its home at the Empire Polo Grounds in Indio, California, on the weekends of April 14-16 and April 21-23.
On Feb. 14, Kino Lorber will release Framing Agnes, from director Chase Joynt, according to a press release. The pseudonymous Agnes was a pioneering transgender woman who participated in an infamous gender health study conducted at UCLA in the 1960s. Her clever use of the study to gain access to gender-affirming healthcare led to her being a celebrated figure in trans history. An all-star cast of trans performers, artists, and thinkersincluding Angelica Ross (Pose), Jen Richards (Mrs. Fletcher) and Zackary Drucker (Transparent)takes on vintage reenactments, bringing to life groundbreaking aspects of trans history.
Jane Fonda talked about her cancer going into remission and reflected on how hard her health battle was during treatment, 9News noted. Talking with ET while on the red carpet at the world-premiere screening of her new comedy, 80 for Brady, Fonda said she found out the joyful news that her cancer was in remission "right before my 85th birthday, so I really celebrated." She added, "It was the first time that I thought, 'OK, this is what most people experience.' Because the kind of chemo that I was taking wasn't so bad in the beginning." Fonda also said that, even with her cancer in remission, she still finds it important to contemplate and reflect on mortality.
The Turtle Creek Chorale will follow headliners such as Idina Menzel and Audra McDonald with three-time Tony Award-winner Patti LuPone, who will be at this year's annual benefit gala, "Rhapsody," on April 1 at the Meyerson Symphony Center, The Dallas Voice noted. "Rhapsody" is the Dallas all-male singing group's annual benefit gala and one of the top social events in the city that features only entertainmentwith no speeches or awards.
Instinct Magazine ran a profile of Matthew William Bishop, who plays Big Daddy in the most recent season of Hulu's American Horror Storyand included some surprising facts. For example, prior to portraying Big Daddy, Bishop worked in corporate public relations for 10 years, most recently as vice president at Edelman New York.
Beyonce reportedly asked Britney Spears to appear in a new music video, but the collaboration ultimately did not happen, according to Page Six. In 2004, the duo sang Queen's "We Will Rock You" in a Pepsi commercial with fellow artist Pink. Enrique Iglesias also appeared in the iconic gladiator-themed ad.
Nicholas Galitzine, who played the prince in Amazon's Cinderella musical, has been cast opposite Julianne Moore in AMC's upcoming period drama Mary & George, Out noted. The series stars Moore as Mary Villiers, the 17th-century countess of Buckingham who "molded her beautiful son George (Galitzine) to seduce King James I and become his all powerful lover." Galitzine is also playing a gay royal in the upcoming Amazon Prime movie Red, White & Royal Blue, which is based on the best-selling novel of the same name by Casey McQuiston.
Actresses Amanda Seyfried and Evan Rachel Wood are reportedly involved with a workshop on the musical version of Thelma & Louise, Variety noted. A Thelma & Louise musical has been in the works since at least 2021 with the film's screenwriter, Callie Khouri, attached, as well as indie singer/songwriter Neko Case creating the score and Haley Feiffer writing the book.
Openly gay producer/writer Greg Berlanti closed a huge new four-year exclusive overall deal for his Berlanti Productions to remain at the studio for its television operations into the year 2027, Deadline noted. Sources indicate that the pact is structured differently than Berlanti's most recent blockbuster overall deal with Warner Bros. TV Group, whose value had been estimated to be more than $300 million and as much as $400 million over six years.
Netflix has dropped the Neil Patrick Harris vehicle Uncoupled after just one season, Variety noted. The eight-episode comedy debuted on the streaming service on July 29, 2022. Harris starred as Michael Lawson. According to the official series logline, "Michael thought his life was perfect until his partner blindsides him by walking out the door after 17 years. Overnight, Michael has to confront two nightmareslosing what he thought was his soulmate and suddenly finding himself a single gay man in his mid-forties in New York City." The show's cast also included Tuc Watkins, Tisha Campbell, Brooks Ashmanskas, Emerson Brooks and Marcia Gay Harden.
Irish dancing legend (and Chicago native) Michael Flatley announced that he has been diagnosed with an "aggressive" form of cancer, WGN-TV reported. Flatley, 64, is best known for staring in the touring Irish dance shows "Riverdance" and "Lord of the Dance." He retired in 2016 due to chronic pain.
The Kelly Clarkson Show is exploring a move to the East Coast's New York metro Tri-State area (New York, New Jersey and Connecticut), Variety reported. Sources close to the show say Clarkson asked NBCU to explore the move out of Los Angeles. The Kelly Clarkson Show is currently in its fourth season and has been picked up through season six.
MTV's The Real Friends of WeHo, which debuts Jan. 20, has already been called "fake"by one of the cast members, Out noted. Cast member Dorion Renaud, the CEO of Buttah Skincare, took to his Instagram Stories to say, "The Fake Friends of WEHO. And I barely know most of these people. Btw I live in The Valley." Also, Eating Out actor Chris Salvatore tweeted, "Last year, 3 gays from a certain reality show refused to film with me for having an OF [OnlyFans] so I was fired by production after filming for only a week. That's about all I can say… for now."
Robert Sepulvedathe star of the 2016 gay dating show Finding Prince Charmingrevealed himself as a transphobe who has been operating an anonymous Twitter account posting adult content, according to Out. "It has been brought to my attention that the anonymous fetish profile that harassed me on Twitter is the so-called 'LGBTQ+ activist' Robert Sepulveda Jr," Mirko Kovac, also known as The Trans Wolf, posted to Instagram. Sepulveda himself later confirmed he ran the account; also, in what was seen as some as a reaction to criticism, Sepulveda posted a screenshot to Instagram stories explaining online harassment with the caption, "Just fyi children."
Kerry Washington, Oprah Winfrey and Sam Waterston are starring in Tyler Perry's Six Triple Eightthe director's fourth film for Netflix, per The Hollywood Reporter. Washington will also executive produce the film about the true story of the only all-Black, all-female World War II battalion that proved key to the American war effort.
The CW handed an early sixth-season renewal to the drama series All American, marking the first scripted renewal after Nexstar took ownership earlier this year, Deadline noted. All Americanwhich was the most successful CW show in total audience across all platformswill launch its fifth season on Jan. 23. It will then return for season six in the 2023-24 broadcast season.
The show Grown-ish is also getting a sixth season, courtesy of Freeform, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The pickup came a week ahead of the comedy's Jan. 18 return to the schedule with the second half of season five. The network also announced premiere dates for season five of Good Trouble (March 16) and season two of Single Drunk Female (April 12) and a summer return for Cruel Summer.
Fox Television Stations renewed new daytime talk series The Jennifer Hudson Show and Sherri Shepherd's Sherri, Deadline reported. The Jennifer Hudson Show has been renewed for a second season and Sherri has been picked up for two more years through the 2024-25 season.
Harvey Weinstein will be sentenced on three counts of rape and sexual assault in Los Angeles on Feb. 23, according to Variety. Weinstein, 70, faces up to 18 years in prison on the charges, in addition to the 23-year sentence he is already serving for his conviction in New York.
A Los Angeles judge ruled that actor Danny Masterson (That 70's Show) will have to stand trial again on a trio of rape charges, Deadline reported. Judge Charlaine Olmedo rejected a defense motion to dismiss the case and formally set March 29 as the start of a second trial with jury selection; the first case was declared a mistrial on Nov. 30, 2022.
Todd and Julie Chrisley's request for bail was denied, meaning the scandal-ridden TV stars will have to report to their respective Florida federal prisons this week, Page Six noted. The Chrisley Knows Best stars were sentenced to a combined 19 years in prison (12 for Todd and seven for Julie) for fraud and tax evasion in November. The Chrisleys, who are appealing their conviction, were also denied to extend their surrender date by 21 days.
Canadian singer Shawn Mendes' fans were buzzing after he exchanged his iconic curly locks for a crew-cut, Page Six noted. The "Treat You Better" singer traded in his signature look in favor of a shaved head that he debuted while stepping out to a café in Los Angeles. An Instagram video of Mendes (still sporting his longer hair) was posted on Christmas Day and came a few months after he canceled his world tour to focus on his mental health. He's slated to perform throughout Europe in July.
Musician El DeBarge was arrested in Burbank, California, authorities confirmed to EW. The singer-songwriterbest known for his family's 1985 hit "Rhythm of the Night" as well as solo hits like "Who's Johnny"was charged with four separate drug and weapons charges after officers found an expandable metal baton, pepper spray and suspected narcotics in his truck. During their interaction, police discovered the weapons and learned that DeBarge did not have a valid driver's license to operate his vehicle.
Emily Ratajkowski was recently seen out with comedian Eric Andre, Extra noted. The sighting came on the heels of her whirlwind romance with another funny guy: Pete Davidson. In 2016, Andre came out as part of the LGBTQ+ community, saying in an interview with Towleroad, "I think everyone is bi, right? There's no such thing as sexual orientation, or race, or gender."